


Numb

by electricsymphony



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-07
Updated: 2013-12-04
Packaged: 2017-11-18 04:44:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/557033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/electricsymphony/pseuds/electricsymphony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were three things Elena Gilbert was absolutely certain of at this moment: everyone she loved, including both of the Salvatores, were dead. She was just forced to transition into a vampire against her will for no logical reason. And Katherine has kidnapped her and confined her to a mansion in St. Louis simply to be sadistic. But nothing is ever as clear cut as it seems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First chapter is all Elena/Katherine. Other characters will steadily be introduced into the story as the chapters progress. Enjoy. :)

#### 

**'I'm tired of being what you want me to be.'**

It'd been six hours and the girl had yet to mutter a single word. It was surprising, but certainly not unwelcome. Katherine had heard enough of the girl's incessant whining to last even her lifetime. The torn out pages of a United States map strewn about the car approximated their location somewhere outside of Lexington, Kentucky driving west on I-64. The silence coupled with the low rumbling of the engine always had a calming effect on Katherine, and most radio stations nowadays played recycled beats of mindless drivel anyhow. The girl in the passenger seat had wrapped her jacket so tightly around herself it obstructed the view of her face. With the absence of the girl's usual rhythmic heartbeat, Katherine had little way to know if she was really asleep. She nudged her shoulder softly and watched for any signs of reaction. The girl's left eye opened so slightly that it would've been imperceptible to human vision.

Elena awoke to a self-satisfied smirk gracing her vampire captor's face. She didn't move from her awkward sleeping position but instead mumbled into her jacket, "Was there something you needed?" Katherine did not answer, her taunting smirk growing wider. Elena scoffed at her and buried her face further into the leather fabric of her jacket. The older vampire surveyed her younger doppelgänger for a moment before turning away, double checking her rear view mirrors and abruptly pulling off the highway, the tires of the black SUV kicking up dirt and rocks behind them.

Elena jolted upwards at the sudden vibration and stared at Katherine in disbelief. "We stopped," she commented warily.

Katherine rolled her eyes and unbuckled the seat belt. "Fantastic deduction, Elena. Nothing gets past you."

Elena ignored the snarky comment. "What are we doing here?"

"Enjoying the view," Katherine quipped dryly.

Elena glared at her evasion of the question, but didn't push the subject.

She followed Katherine into the depths of a heavily wooded area, every step they took bringing them further and further away from civilization. The tree branches brushed uncomfortably against her hypersensitive skin and the bright glow of the moonlight hurt her eyes. "Katherine, please--why did we stop?"

"We've been driving for six hours now and it's nearly morning." Katherine still had her back to Elena, but she didn't need to see the vampire to picture the amused curl of her lip. "You can consider this your continental breakfast." Katherine turned back to the other girl and flashed her a sinister smile. "What's the matter? Don't tell me you forgot this part, Elena, even you aren't that stupid."

"I--" Elena stuttered, but she broke off, her eyes darting around the woods, her fingertips fidgeting nervously with a loose thread on the hemline of her shirt. "You are going to make me feed from animals?" She tried to ignore the disgusting taste in the back of her throat from even vocalizing those words.

"Ugh, please," Katherine scoffed and dismissed the statement with a wave of her hand, inhaling deeply as she peered into the darkness. "I'm not Stefan. I don't apologize for taking my livelihood straight from the source. No, I can smell fresh blood not too far off. Campers, most likely."

"Campers?" Elena asked incredulously. "Innocent people?"

Katherine sighed and kept walking without another word, but Elena pressed on. "I won't do it, I don't care what you threaten me with. I have nothing left to lose." When Katherine still remained silent, Elena turned back towards the car. She barely took three steps before Katherine had her pinned against a tree trunk, one hand effortlessly pressed against her jugular. Elena's attempts to squirm out of her grasp only irritated Katherine further, causing the pressure on Elena's neck to tighten with each futile struggle.

Katherine was so close now that Elena could practically feel the vampire's soft breath against her ear. "I don't take kindly to disobedient brats, Elena. Petulant children end up with missing limbs, got it?"

"So you'll kill me?" Elena asked, her tone casual and disinterested. "Do you think that scares me?"

"Kill you?" Elena had expected her to react angrily, but Katherine seemed genuinely amused by her assumption. "You sorely underestimate my intelligence, Elena. Do you honestly believe I can't see straight through your sad attempt to manipulate this situation? You _want_ me to get so unbelievably angry at you that I eventually lash out and kill you, isn't that right?" She released her hold on Elena's neck and watched her doppelgänger fall to the ground, grasping at thin air for some means of supporting herself. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news my dear," Katherine whispered softly, threateningly--and if Elena hadn't imagined it, slightly flirtatiously, "But I don't do pity kills."

Elena didn't say a word, but the harsh glare in her narrowed eyes said more than words could express. Katherine just pulled the girl up roughly by her elbow and smirked as she stumbled back, struggling to keep her balance. "And that'll be the weakness setting in, right on schedule," she sneered mockingly.

"The weakness?" Elena questioned, her wavering voice betraying her unease.

"Yes, Elena," Katherine spoke slowly, as if speaking to a four-year old who couldn't grasp the simplest of concepts, "You've been in transition for almost fourteen hours now, your body is shutting down." Katherine paused to study her doppelgänger's reaction to her statement, but she only saw a blank stare. She'd have to push, then. "Can you smell it yet Elena--the blood? Is it overpowering every other sense in your body? Is it making you _hungry?_ "

She got the reaction she wanted; Elena's eyes went wide with a mixture of horror and alarm. Katherine didn't need vocal confirmation, it was obvious in the way Elena's slumped shoulders straightened out and her noticeably deeper intake of breath. With Elena's new vampire instincts brewing just beneath the surface, she channeled all the disconcerting aggression onto a much more deserving victim.

Katherine swiftly dodged the punches Elena was throwing at her with ease, laughing condescendingly as Elena grew increasingly frustrated. "Don't overexert yourself, my dear--it makes the bloodlust stronger." Elena stopped abruptly, the shock written all over her face, and it took Katherine a moment to realize her doppelgänger wasn't staring at her--but rather, _behind_ her. The light-haired man was surveying the two identical girls with furrowed brows and a frown of confusion on his face.

The man began sputtering nonsense, terrified by the expression on Elena's face. "G-god, I'm sorry--I didn't mean to interrupt, I just heard--" but he trailed off, stumbling over a tree branch as he hastened to get away from this utterly perplexing situation. Katherine simply rolled her eyes at his display of cowardice and grabbed his forearm to pull him close to her. She grazed her blunt human teeth across his neck and smiled appreciatively at his whimper of fear. She could feel her own bloodlust simmering, but pushed it down forcefully. It wouldn't do any good to lose control over her actions right now--this was far more about Elena than it was about her.

She let her fangs elongate and slowly penetrate the soft skin on the man's neck. She could feel Elena's eyes watching the scene play out in front of her--burning, preparing, _evaluating_. Although she had never experienced it herself, she had heard many times how unbearably powerful the draw to blood was in the last few hours of transition. She was well aware that if any semblance of Elena's rational mind remained, the girl would've been spouting out gasps of protest. Obviously, that was not the case. The usually warm and irritatingly compassionate gaze in Elena's eyes was nowhere to be found--replaced by the malicious glint of bloodlust Katherine was only accustomed to seeing when she looked in the mirror. The image of her doppelgänger so devoid of human emotion--which had once been the most distinguishing difference between them--was enough to elicit a physical reaction of disgust knotting in her stomach.

_This has to happen; stick to the plan. Don't lose your resolve, not now. Let it happen._ Katherine repeated the mantra in her mind over and over as she watched Elena hesitantly run her tongue down the trail of blood escaping from the man's neck wound, nearly moaning from the immense pleasure as it hit the back of her throat.

Katherine had lived five centuries, had seen the most disturbing parts of the world she never even fathomed could exist, and had caused more death and destruction than she could bother to remember. Yet she had never had an experience quite like this. She stood rooted to the spot as Elena greedily sucked the man dry, her grip tightening with every passing second, her teeth digging deeper and ripping more savagely with every mouth full of blood. Katherine forgot for a moment that she was watching Elena, and all she saw was herself--the young, just turned Katerina surrounded by the cold wilderness of her homeland in winter as she tore apart the man who forced her on this path to hell; the man who had once whispered her sweet, affectionate promises of true love before she was banished from everything she knew for carrying his child.

And suddenly Elena was on the ground, panting heavily, eyes flittering from the immobile form of the light-haired man sprawled in front of her to the blood covering her hands, aghast in horror and disbelief. Oh, and there it was again--that damned warmth, compassion and irritating innocence in her eyes that Elena Gilbert was so famous for.

"I hate you," she hissed, and any warmth that might have flickered in her eyes before had quickly evaporated into exaggerated fury.

Katherine could recall a brief conversation she'd had with Isobel last year, merely hours before the woman ripped off her lapis lazuli necklace and sealed her fate, burning to a crisp in the middle of a graveyard that she should have been buried in all along. She had come back from a tense meeting with her daughter, ranting some ridiculous notion that Elena was much more like Katherine than anyone gave her credit for. Katherine had of course just scoffed and dismissed the statement, writing it off as Isobel once again trying to seem more perceptive than she actually was. But now as she peered down at her doppelgänger--lips twisted into a dangerous snarl, eyes narrowed and burning with an unbridled anger, hair disheveled and matted with dirt and blood--she thought that maybe Isobel had a deeper insight into her daughter than anyone gave _her_ credit for.

In a blur of sudden movement, Elena had disappeared into the darkness. It's not like Katherine hadn't been expecting this to happen--she knew Elena would run. However, she also knew--and was sure Elena knew--it wouldn't take long for Katherine to catch up to her and drag her back to the car. As soon as Katherine determined which direction was the most potent with Elena's scent, she paused to stare at the stiff figure of the light-haired man slumped against the tree trunk. He sputtered out a soft, barely detectable cough, but the slight rise in his chest gave it away. He was still alive. She could feel that knot twisting in her stomach again, and realized startled that it was not disgust at all--it was _guilt_. She shook her head as if to banish the ridiculous thought; it had been centuries since she'd allowed herself to feel guilt. And for what? For some whiny human bitch who just happened to share her face?

She cut her wrist quickly and shoved it forcefully down the man's throat, feeling him steadily begin to suck from the wound. Once she was satisfied she'd given him enough, she gripped his neck and pulled him up to her eye level. "You won't remember either of us or anyone attacking you. The last thing you remember is walking through the woods before you blacked out. You're certain that an animal must have attacked you, and you will go back to wherever you came from to seek help with your injuries." His eyes dilated in response to her compulsion and he wordlessly limped off in the other direction.

She gritted her teeth in agitation; it had been over three centuries since she'd bothered to heal someone she'd fed on. Why now? The question echoed in her mind, and she already knew the answer--but she would never admit it, not even in the security of her own mind.

She climbed into the front seat of the SUV they had abandoned on the side of the road and turned the ignition to roar the engine to life.

"He's dead. _They're_ dead. They're _all_ dead."

The sound of Elena's voice from the passenger seat made Katherine nearly jump in surprise. If Elena had noticed Katherine's uncharacteristic display of shock, she didn't comment on it. Elena had run off-- _hadn't_ she? Had she really broken the excessively stubborn Elena Gilbert to the point where she'd given up fighting? The thought unnerved Katherine more than she dared to show.

"I fed the man my blood," Katherine said nonchalantly, as if her uncharacteristic display of kindness towards a human meant nothing, "He won't remember what happened--he'll be _fine_ , Elena."

Katherine could see Elena struggling with how to respond to that, opening her mouth several times before dejectedly closing it and leaning back in the seat, rubbing her forehead softly to ease the tension of their current predicament. Katherine pulled the car into drive and sharply turned back onto the highway, once again resuming their path down I-64 to St. Louis.

Despite the car being shrouded in shadows of darkness, she could still see the 'thank you' embedded in Elena's--thankfully once again soft and expressive with emotion--deep brown eyes.

#### 

**'Feeling so faithless, lost under the surface.'**

It'd been seven hours since Elena locked herself in the second upstairs bedroom with nothing but a black spiral bound notebook, a smooth textured fountain pen that she was sure cost more than the package deals she usually bought by the bulk at Staples, and a blood bag that she forced herself not to look too closely at when she drank. For the first five hours, she had done everything in her power to block the sounds of Katherine pacing downstairs, but she was unsure how this new heightened vampire hearing actually worked and gave up after a while. Luckily, the pacing had stopped and was replaced with an eery silence. Now she was beginning to grow worried. Had Katherine left her here? As much as she despised the thought, the security of knowing Katherine was downstairs was preferable to succumbing to the to truth of how miserably alone she was.

With that thought in mind, she trotted down the staircase, hesitatingly only slightly when she reached the bottom and noticed how large the house really was. She could easily spend twenty minutes trying to find Katherine in this maze of old portraits, antique furniture and brick fireplaces. Thankfully, it didn't take long because she found the vampire lounging lazily on a chaise in front of a lit fireplace, a bottle of something unmistakably alcoholic teetering unsteadily in her left hand.

"Elena!" She exclaimed, far more chipper than Elena felt was necessary for the situation. "C-come and sit with me. I wanna tell you a story."

Elena eyed her skeptically, but sat down on the couch opposite her. "You're drunk."

Katherine looked briefly offended, but then burst into laughter and nearly spilled some of the drink on the carpet. "Maybe," she said, a playful grin dancing on her face. "I wouldn't know--I don't get drunk often. Y'know, running for my life and all that." She whispered the last part as though it was a secret and giggled at Elena's face. "Aw, come on," Katherine teased, a mock pout on her lips. "Frowning has never been my best look, and neither is it yours."

"I'm not frowning," Elena said defensively. "And if I was, I'd have every reason to be."

"Right," Katherine smirked at her, "Because everyone you love is dead. Barbie vampire, the witch, your brother, _the Salvatores_. That sounds quite horrible. But guess what? Everyone I love is dead too--and has been for hundreds of years over." She took another sip of whatever it was she was drinking and leaned back, the curls in her hair draping over the back of the chaise. "Welcome to the club, my dear. The t-shirts are on back order, unfortunately."

"Are you trying to be uncommonly cruel or are you just naturally a bitch?" Elena spat, her eyes narrowing in annoyance.

"I'm _trying_ ," she emphasized, mimicking Elena's exasperated tone of voice and giggling again, "to get you to drink with me. Take it from someone with years of experience, alcohol is a fantastic grieving companion."

Elena scoffed at her and raised her chin in defiance. "What do you have to grieve about?"

Katherine just laughed. "You aren't even aware how self-centered you can be, are you Elena?"

"Right," Elena remarked, now mimicking _her_ sarcastic tone of voice, "Because you loved Stefan. Who did you think you fooled with that one?"

Katherine didn't reply, her expression stoic and unreadable as she handed Elena the bottle of liquor.

"What is it?" Elena asked, apprehensive about what consequences could come from drinking with Katherine.

"Don't ask; no questions; just drinking."

Elena was vaguely aware that Katherine could be poisoning her, but she couldn't muster the energy to care. She might actually welcome a poisoning right now. And as the repeated sips of alcohol burned down her throat, she felt the tension pounding in her head slowly start to dissipate.

\--------------------------------

As Katherine draped the blanket over Elena's sleeping form snuggled into the couch, she smirked at the empty bottle of Gosling's Black Rum tucked under one of the cushions. She had never expected a drunk Elena to be _that_ difficult to control. After insisting they play 'Never Have I Ever'-("Elena, I'm fucking five-hundred and thirty-seven years old, what _haven't_ I done?")-and proceeding to dance around to the room when Katherine begrudgingly let her win, Elena traipsed around the kitchen, unknowingly knocking over the microwave in her attempt to find snacks. Twenty minutes into trying to convince Katherine to bring her to the store to buy a twister mat, she curled into the couch and asked what kind of movies Katherine had here. Unsure of how to explain to an intoxicated Elena that she hadn't exactly thought to stop at a video store while planning their getaway from Klaus, she was relieved when she turned back around to find her doppelgänger fast asleep.

Katherine pulled out her phone and unlocked it to find an array of flashing messages beeping at her. 57 missed calls, 74 unread text messages and 33 new voicemails. Why was she even remotely surprised by this?

She slipped into the hallway and up the staircase, locking the door to the bathroom behind her, not willing to take even the slightest chance of Elena overhearing. The words Damon Salvatore flashed brightly up at her and she took a deep breath before hitting answer. 

"Where the fuck are you, Katherine? If you've even touched her, I won't hesitate to rip your head off."

"So polite, Damon. Is that the way you greet everyone on the phone?" Katherine jeered at him.

"Where are you? Where's Elena?"

"Elena's here--she's fine. I'm afraid you can't speak to her right now though, poor little darling is passed out on the couch."

"What did you do?" His voice was a low, threatening growl but Katherine simply laughed.

"I didn't do anything, Damon. But your girl--" Katherine broke off, a smirk gracing her lips, "Damn, she's quite the drunk."

"Katherine, don't play games with me. Where are you?"

She sighed, knowing that it would come to this--knowing she would have to tell him eventually. "I can't tell you, Damon." Her voice was low and dejected, and she almost cringed at hearing herself sound so vulnerable.

"Enough of the bullshit, Katherine, stop playing around. You don't understand. We have a real problem with Klaus, and I need to find Elena. Tell me where you are."

Katherine might have laughed at the irony of his statement if she wasn't so distressed.

"No Damon, I'm afraid _you_ don't understand. This _is_ the problem with Klaus-I _can't_ tell you where we are."


	2. II.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Notes** : So... hey guys? More than a year after this story was started, here's its second chapter. And the funny thing is, more than half of it was written a year ago and I just so happened to come across it again in my documents three hours ago, so I finished it. I don't know why I hadn't finished it before, I guess I was just blocked. Is anyone still following this story? Please drop me a review if you have the time and let me know if you are, it'd be a good gauge for me to know where I decide to take this story. :)
> 
> **Disclaimer** : The Vampire Diaries, its characters, plot lines and premise belong to LJ Smith, Kevin Williamson, Julie Plec, The CW, Warner Brothers and their affiliates. I do not own anything detailed in this story, and I make no monetary profit by these writings. All rights reserved to respective parties.

As a child, she'd always found that the world blanketed by miles of serene white snow was the most beautiful sight to behold, and thus always held a certain fondness for the winter season. She'd woken up that morning resigned to simply meander through the intricate passageways of her new dwelling in a futile attempt at distraction, but the first light snowfall of the year had considerably brightened her sullen mood. The innocent nostalgic bliss of a December snowfall lasted all of five minutes before Elena bounded into the kitchen only to be met with a tense and frustrated Katherine, her rapt attention focused solely on the screen of her cell phone. Elena peered over Katherine's shoulder to try to read any of the message, but Katherine jerked the phone out of her view before she could make out a single word. "Mind your boundaries, Elena. You're far too curious for your own good."

"I'm far too a lot of things for my own good," Elena muttered dryly and moved over towards one of the cabinets to rummage through the food.

Katherine's lip curled in distaste, which Elena knew meant a condescending comment was sure to follow. "You know you don't have to eat anymore, right?"

Elena raised an eyebrow, undeterred. "Then why do you keep buying food?"

Katherine gave an impartial shrug and opened a carefully concealed freezer of stored blood bags before taking one off the top and taking a seat at the dining room table. "Food helps curb the cravings," she remarked nonchalantly. Elena went to retort, but Katherine cut her off sharply. "For _me_ , not for you," she chastised, effectively silencing Elena's protest. "Regardless of any Vampire 101 theories Stefan may have tried to instill in you, attempting to suppress your natural tendencies as a new vampire is the absolute _worst_ tactic to take. The more fresh blood your body gets in the first weeks, the smoother its transition process. It has to acclimate to a new life source, and binging on human food to control the urges is counterproductive."

Elena immediately steered the conversation elsewhere, too stubborn to allow Katherine the victory of knowing she'd made her point. "How can you talk about Stefan so casually? If you expect me to believe you're even mildly affected—let alone distraught—over his death, you're doing a terrible job."

"You're deflecting," Katherine pointed out, her tone blunt and unyielding, but her eyes betraying a subtle vulnerability.

"And so are you," Elena protested. "You've been dodging questions about this for days; what are you hiding from me?"

As Katherine stared her down in an assessment of how best to respond, Elena tried not to show her skepticism at the disconcerting gaze. Katherine was a beguiling paradox that she could never quite figure out. Most of the time the vampire seemed genuinely relaxed, amused and confident in her superiority, as was her typical persona; but in other rare glimpses of weakness she seemed anxious, frustrated, irritable and even somewhat perturbed. Elena was certain there had to be some information Katherine was keeping from her, and if whatever it was could crumble her usually calm and composed disposition, it must be pretty damn important.

And then Katherine laughed—that smug, patronizing air of confidence returning the tense atmosphere to its conformable norm. Elena didn't push for more, however, because in that brief twenty seconds of uncharacteristic behavior, Katherine had inadvertently confirmed that whatever she was hiding did indeed involve Stefan's death. Elena wasn't sure if she should be optimistic about what this discovery could mean, but quickly decided that it would be best to avoid any expectations, lest they turn out unfounded.

Elena was abruptly snapped out of her internal musings by the screeching of Katherine's chair against the hardwood floor as she stood up to dispose of the now empty blood bag. Elena reached her hand into the cooler to retrieve her own, but Katherine swatted her away, a clear warning present in her dark eyes.

She could feel the exaggerated anger swelling up inside of her at Katherine for denying her the 'new life source' the older vampire had been so insistent she binge on just minutes earlier. The tone in her response came out much more aggressive than she intended it, and she could almost _feel_ the growl lodged in the back of her throat. "You told me to 'acclimate to my new lifestyle', did you not? Make up your mind; I don't appreciate being toyed with."

"Simmer down, pup," Katherine taunted humorlessly, "I meant what I said; did you miss the part where I said _fresh_ blood?" She rolled her eyes at Elena's horrified expression and motioned to the door with a slight tilt of her head. "Come on, it shouldn't be all that hard to find you a nice tasty donor."

"Fresh blood?" Elena echoed, her anger forgotten, complexion paling at the mere memory of the man she had nearly killed a few days prior. "But it's—" she sputtered, trying desperately to come up with some reasonable excuse, "—cold out," she finished weakly.

Katherine raised an eyebrow, amused by Elena's attempt to dissuade her off finding an unsuspecting human to make a hearty meal of. "You're a _vampire_ , Elena—you don't get cold. Jackets are mere fashion accessories."

"Do you really have a snarky response handy for every situation?"

"I don't know," Katherine mused, a faux thoughtful expression gracing her features, "Do you really always deflect to righteous indignation when you _don't_ have a snarky response handy for every situation?"

Elena scoffed and brushed right past Katherine, out the heavy oak front doors and down the cobblestone pathway, Katherine's mirthful laughter following her every step of the way.

~~~

Damon wasn't accustomed to people invading his personal space, so when he found Meredith helping herself to a sandwich on a bar stool in his kitchen—the kitchen that Stefan had begrudgingly agreed to stay out of per Damon's request, at that—he could only groan in frustration. He knew Stefan and Alaric's sexy psycho doctor had become freakishly enamored with each other lately, but he couldn't even venture a guess as to why Meredith gave his brother the time of day, let alone why she was still _around_ now that Alaric was gone.

"You know, I was under the impression the hospital actually _paid_ you for your services. Do you mind telling me why you've taken to eating my food and crashing on my couch the last few weeks?"

Meredith only smiled irritatingly in response. "You're especially grouchy today, Damon. Bad day?"

He grabbed a coffee mug out of the top cupboard and set it down on the marble counter-top with a dramatic flourish. "I just spent all morning arguing around in circles with the loud, hypocritical bitch who royally fucked over my life, the hundred and forty-five year plan. Grouchy doesn't even begin to cover it."

"Katherine?" Meredith asked nonchalantly, but her tone indicated that she didn't need his confirmation.

Damon furrowed his brow, eyeing Meredith as if she had overstepped some imaginary boundary line. "Okay look, I've tolerated this weird quasi-friendship you and Stefan have formed recently, but I draw the line at amateur psycho-therapy, okay? You want to be helpful? Stay the hell out of my business and make a new pot of coffee when you finish the last one."

Meredith didn't seem the least bit concerned with the possible risks that came with perpetuating a volatile vampire's increasingly bad day. She took another bite from her sandwich, propped her feet up on the stool across from her and regarded Damon with casual indifference. "Do you really believe Katherine when she says she'll protect Elena?"

"You're grating on my last nerve, Fell. I'd recommend proceeding with caution."

"The detached tough guy act is awfully cute Salvatore, but did you ever stop to think that maybe I could be of some _help_ to you?"

He grabbed his coat off the back of one of the dining room chairs and pocketed his car keys before turning to face her again. Her tact left something to be desired, but she had definitely piqued his interest, he hated to admit. "Make your offer quickly, won't you? I've got a house full of sorority girls waiting to meet their generous new benefactor, all of whom I can assure you will be holding my attention in far more _pleasurable_ ways than this conversation."

Meredith only nodded, seemingly unaffected by Damon's vulgar insinuations, reaching over his arm to take a sip from the newly poured coffee mug. "Yes, but do any of _those_ girls work in the hospital Klaus visited today requesting to view confidential sealed files that once belonged to Grayson Gilbert's medical offices?"

Damon arched an eyebrow at this, genuinely surprised. Klaus was more than a bit of a recluse to them nowadays—besides very vague comments that Katherine had told him in between disparaging insults, he knew next to nothing about how Klaus fit in with whatever shit he was pulling on compelling Katherine. "Well, did he get access to them?"

"Of course not," Meredith dismissed quickly; "The whole hospital inhales vervain like oxygen—he's getting nowhere near those files."

Damon pondered this as he pulled his coat tighter around himself to brace the weather outside. "Well, can _you_ get access to the files then?"

"Oh come on—if Klaus can't get access to them, how do you think I'll do it sans compulsion?"

Damon was two seconds away from kicking her out of his house—quite literally, he could use the opportunity to take some anger out—and he snatched the coffee cup right from her hands as she went to take another sip. "Then why the hell are you bothering me with this?"

Meredith smiled victoriously, eerily reminding him of Katherine's patented mysterious smirk. "Because I don't _need_ to get access to those files. I already know what they say, and I know why Klaus was looking for them in the first place."

Damon's slack jawed awe made her have to stifle a laugh as she tried to remain serious. He didn't speak as he processed this information, and Meredith just shook her head slowly. "We're going to the hospital," she announced without his consent, "—I have something I want to show you. You'll have to reschedule your brothel, unfortunately. We've got a lot to discuss, I'm sure you can imagine." She tilted her head in humorous inquisition and motioned for his keys. At his still shocked stiff non-reaction, she sighed and murmured, "Fine; we'll take my car."

With that, she walked out of the kitchen and Damon simply stared at her retreating form. He was shaken out of his stupor by Stefan's amused voice coming from the parlor—"You'd really ought to follow her. Trust me, she won't wait long."

Without even the sparest of glances to his brother, he hurried after her, annoyed and discontent to remain the ignorant one in this dysfunctional threesome.

~~~

**October 26th, 1997**

__

Jenna was sitting precariously atop of a teetering pile of gossip magazines on a lounge chair, the telephone placed unsteadily on her left thigh as she talked exuberantly into the receiver. "Look, Mase—I know she'll be there, kay? I swear I wouldn't have told I could set you up if she wasn't coming. So seriously, I gotta go." There was a pause while she shifted her positioning and laughed at something he replied. "Hey, what can I say? I could have a damn-right lucrative career as a matchmaker and still can't advise my own relationships if my life depended on it. She'll be there, you can bet your precious hair gel on it."

__

The doorbell rang so suddenly that she slides off the magazines and lands flat on her ass against the hardwood of the dining room floor. "Shit Mase, I really have to go. You know I'm supposed to be watching 'Lena and I think Mer's here. Yeah, I'll call you tomorrow. Suck it up, big guy. Smoke a dime or something, loosen you up a bit. You're starting to sound like your old man you're so tense 'bout this Mesley chick," she teased and hung up the phone.

__

"Elena?!" She called out into the house and heard no response. She had no idea what kind of trouble her kid niece could've gotten into by now, but she dismissed it for the moment to get the door. As expected, Meredith stood on the opposite side, arms stuffed with several photo binders and streamers falling out of her grasp. Jenna took them from her immediately, a smile on her face as she greeted her best friend.

__

"This is some hell of a Halloween party to plan," Meredith sighed exasperated as she dropped the assortment of junk on the couch and fell onto the chair next to it with a groan. "Can you remind me again why I'm a part of this idiotic Planning Committee again? 'Cause from my recollection, I _suck_ at planning shit and it's only because of _you_ that I endure this torture in the first place."

__

Jenna gave her a wry smile and began to pick up the scattered magazines that had been dumped all over the floor. "Because you're my best friend; it's called obligation, Mer."

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"Yeah well, obligation blows," Meredith snapped back, but smiled nevertheless. "It's your turn now—I'm done looking at dress colors and streamer themes until at least—I don't know, fucking Thanksgiving, maybe—"

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Jenna tensed abruptly at the sound of voices from the kitchen, and lowered her voice to a hesitant whisper. "I should tell you, Mer—uh, Nik's here—"

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"Ugh, seriously?" Meredith repeated in horror. "He hasn't let up since I rejected him the first time, hasn't he got the hint yet? How many times can you tell a guy 'no' before he finally looks for another girl to lust after?"

__

Jenna just shook her head in sympathy, "At least that means Gray's here too, you know those two run in a pack. He'll be a good distraction—you like Gray, and I know 'Lena's round here somewhere, maybe you won't even have to talk to him."

__

"Yeah, I guess," Meredith sighed dejectedly. "Can we just head up to your room before he notices I'm even here? I really don't wan—"

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"Hey Jen, can you come here a sec?" The sound of Miranda's voice from the kitchen cut off Meredith's plea and Jenna looked to her best friend with a sad look of helplessness and a shrug.

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"Just go on up, I'll meet you there in a sec," Jenna said quickly as she scurried off to see what her sister needed.

__

Meredith glanced around, stretching her tense muscles and sore back before standing up, straightening out her mussed t-shirt and heading for the staircase up to Jenna's room. Just rounding the corner though, of course, was the object of her fear itself. Nik stood with that casual, cool charm that he exuded in his every interaction--the very reason she was naively attracted to him in the first place. "Where are you headed in such a rush, sweetheart?"

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"Upstairs, clearly." She narrowed her eyes on him and tried to appear unaffected. "You need something?"

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His voice lowered somewhat. "Aw come on Mer, you know what I need. Don't play coy, really doesn't suit you."

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"Listen Nik, I said it the first time and I'll say it again, the answer is _no_. Now move out of the way, cause I'm so fucking sic—"

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"Mer!" The enthusiastic, high-pitched voice had barely registered in her brain before she found herself arms full with forty-pounds of vivacious five-year old. Elena's flowing, brown hair curtained itself around Meredith's shoulders as the young girl pulled away, still beaming. "Are you staying? Can you, please? Nikky and Daddy are making dinner—Mom says it's gonna be a wreck, but I think they'll do okay." She turned to Nik, who immediately scooped her up and placed her on top of his shoulders, laughing fondly at the shrieks of delight that escaped her at the maneuver.

__

Nik's lips curled into a devilish smile as he regarded the young child. "Don't make me break our sacred pact, little 'Lena. I may just have to forget how ticklish you are."

__

He tugged on Elena's tiny feet which made her once again shriek in laughter and Nik turned to Meredith with an unreadable and yet slightly unnerving demeanor. "You really should join us, Mer. It's just dinner, and after all—" he pulled Elena down from his shoulders and watched her trot off into the kitchen to meet her parents, "You wouldn't want to disappoint our girl, would you?"

__

~~~

They'd only made it so far as the nearest bar's parking lot when Elena had suddenly and violently thrown her head back against the head rest, causing Katherine to come to a screeching halt on the brakes as fast as her reflexes could handle. Elena, however, seemed to be in a state of dissociative pain, completely oblivious to her outside surroundings. Her eyes were closed, she was clenching her fists so tight they were red and she seemed to be whispering something Katherine couldn't coherently make out.

It took a lot to make Katherine Pierce genuinely nervous, but she had never seen this kind of reaction from a newborn vampire before. She could deduce at the very least that the only possible thing Elena could be experiencing were memories lost from her human life due to compulsion, but no one _ever_ reacted like this, not anyone Katherine had ever witnessed before. She could only imagine the magnitude and amount of memories that must've been suppressed for a reaction this intense.

Finally, Elena stopped thrashing about, and slumped back against the seat, a horrified whisper of " _Klaus_ " etched on her pale, chapped lips before she blacked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Notes** : So, did this chapter go in a direction you guys were expecting? I'd love for you to let me know what you thought of it, feedback is the most encouraging kind of motivation. Until next time. (It won't be another year, that I swear.)


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